The faintest sound of the brush being disturbed alerts me to someone before they speak, “I’ve seen you, visiting the saint. You’re an odd sort, skulking quickly, stealing into and out of town without much contact. Except priest Santiago. Why would that be?”

I scoff, I don’t owe this person anything. They do have a crossbow trained on me, but it’s not like I haven’t caught crossbow bolts before, either in my hands or in various parts of my body to be plucked free later. Actually there is no malice or hostility in the air between us, and my senses indicate the crossbow is only loosely aimed in my direction. I steel a glance towards the voice. They try to avoid my gaze, but I’m far more used to stealth than they are, they’re easy enough to spot.

I call out, “What odd attire for a constable.”

It’s their turn to scoff, “I’m nothing of the sort. Just an individual cursed with boredom and curiosity.”

I smirk, “In that case, you’ll excuse me if I tell you to go sate your curiosity elsewhere.”

Their response is almost jovial, “That’s fair, you’re certainly under no obligations. Most don’t even notice you come to Autumn Brook, and there hasn’t been any trouble I would pin on you. I would know. I guess I’ll just ask you to look after Santiago. He seems a good sort.”

I continue wearing the smirk, but I feel less smug about our interaction. Judging by the air about them, this individual stays in the wilderness. They probably haven’t seen the inside of the town in person in months, if not years. Now I’m the curious one.

I nod in agreement, “Yes, yes he is. I hope you find some solace from your boredom and curiosity. Perhaps a sojourn into town and a change of clothes? If you require discretion, well, Tiago is always willing to lend a hand.”

I restrain myself from also suggesting they bathe. Hopefully no disdain leaked through into my voice. If I can avoid making an enemy I can avoid leaving a body. At least, that’s my excuse for not killing anyone who ever spies me. I really am too soft for this job. They keep telling me. What else would I do though?

They edge further into the brush, their demeanor abashed as they mumble, “N,no, I couldn’t. I can’t.” Their crossbow is slung back over their shoulder and they’ve got both arms wrapped in front of their chest. It’s plain to see that the shelf of their breasts suddenly made them self-conscious when I suggested they enter town.

I shrug in response, “Well, do as you’ll do. Good luck slaking your boredom.”

They reach a hand out in objection, begging momentary pause, but I only grant them an instant, during which they don’t speak, so I steal away into the pre-dawn wilderness.

Hm? Again Teuila? Really? Hah. Okay, fine. I’m not even going to worry about it any longer. My ear is yours, or whatever this subconscious desire is. It is odd for me to feel fully awake and ready to go though before Teuila gets up. Usually I fall back asleep at least once. But it almost feels like I’m prepared to journey somewhere on foot even. I begin to move, and of course this rouses Teuila instantly. She grins madly at me and tackles me off of the bed. We thump onto the floor and there’s a thump in response from the kitchen. Whoops, heh.

Te suddenly explains, “So, I was thinking, we gotta go get Dawny, sure sure, but after that, we’ve got the whole day, and we’re going to need supplies. Like, Harriet didn’t say how far this trip was or anything, but I’m starting to get a sense of the scale of Rayileklia. So, so anyway, like, I figure we can buy just a ton of stuff from the town, and what we’ll use regularly and immediately can go in the backpack. Everything else I’ll snag to my inventory. Yeah? But like, then I was like, well, what exactly is a whole bunch of stuff. I want to see if we can get a mud treated sleeping bag, and, um, well, food obviously, tons of food. I can’t believe I can say I’m sick of fish and insect meat and cragbeast meat. We have water, but we should probably buy waterskins and stuff anyway, so that my Dink doesn’t have to hurt every time ya need a sip.”

I blink repeatedly trying to keep up with Teuila. She doesn’t pause for a breath, so I have to forcibly blink to continue hearing and understanding her. I have no idea how or why that works. I nod at Teuila. She’s making good sense, and like I said, I’m perfectly happy having her take charge on this planet.

Teuila jokes, “I was thinking of kind of maybe being a bit of a brat about it, doing what you did, summoning like a me-sized pile of gold, and just being like, ‘I want your everything, keep the change.’ Hehe. I know I shouldn’t though, Luni would school me on economics or something weird. Though I mean, lots of gold was already removed from the economy into a dragon’s belly. Oh, oh I bet it’s in Kozzurth’s sh— err p— err um, waste matter. Well, someone’s going to be desperate enough to mine for it someday, hah.”

I try to keep my laughter to a minimum as I chuckle more and more at Teuila’s stream-of-consciousness ramble. She gives me her biggest, derpiest grin as she emits a Shellcracker Family Squee. Her glee warms my heart and finishes waking me up the rest of the way.

I say, “One thing at a time My-Wings, gotta see if we can even find Dawn, right?”

Teuila nods excitedly as she makes sure everything is packed. We check to make sure our Valkyrie armor is shrunk to its smallest levels. I’ll just wear this on my belt in case I need to slip into something a bit more defensive really quickly. I’ll keep the other one tucked in over here though, in case I’ve got to try to help someone else armor up quickly. I wonder what all Teuila brought out of her inventory. Maybe she had the same idea and she’s carrying around one or more spare suits of Valkyrie armor tiny-sized on her personage somewhere. Oh hey! She’s got her magic quarterstaff-turned-spear!

Gosh, that Vampguppy fang and that Octorochi fang look deadly as hell. Or was that just a regular Rochi? I forget if it was the big male that had Dehlia tethered, or if it was the original sonnuva gun. Oh, Teuila used some spare Valkyrie gear to help fasten the fangs in place, so it’s got more of a, what’s that term, full tang sort of structural integrity. Ugh, thinking about magical gear, I really wish I had the tendril tattoo. It’s so versatile and handy. I could even use it to move about as quick as a horse, maybe faster. Could probably keep from slowing Teuila down too much if I did that, flinging myself around with the tendrils.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Hm, since her spear is a quarterstaff with two points, does that make it a bident instead of a trident? Is that a thing? I forget. Come on brain, you used to list off all kinds of weapons way back on— noooope. Nope nope nope. Coconuts, pineapples, persimmons, uh, aguave? There we go, now I’ve confused myself. Good, whew.

Of course the rowdy night-to-morning crowd is smoking the heck out of the downstairs of the Keel Over, koff, koff. Ugh. We wave to Marshal with the key to our room in-hand. He looks at it with a bit of a forlorn smile. Marshal accepts the key and tosses it into a cubby as he walks back to the kitchen, leaving the bar momentarily unattended. While the bar is seemingly free, an elderly drunk starts to lean over it to try to reach alcohol beneath on the far side. Do I even want to interfere? Whoop, no need. Marshal is quick, and just as scary with a cleaver as Keeley. Let’s get out of here.

Teuila and I amble southward out of town, hoping beyond hope to find “Dawny” as Te has taken to calling them. I really hope Dawn doesn’t think I’ve given up their, um, identity. Oh, the presence! We’re in luck! I scan the countryside as best I can from our current vantage. Hm, is there anything in the staff that will aid me? Oh! The aura sense or magic vision or whatever somehow let me feel that tiny thread that connected Dawn to me. The one that let them track me. Even if I couldn’t exactly see it. There we go.

Oh wow. Teuila’s soul is on full display inside of her, and it’s roiling with mixed emotions. There’s excitement, rage, sadness, gladness, and just, it’s hard to parse exactly how many things are going on within her, and how voluminous each one is. Normally the staff sight just sort of shows outlines of auras and stuff, the only soul I’ve ever seen was Dawn’s until now. Dawn’s was external, Teuila’s is still internal, but it’s like a sort of thermal image scan. Wait, a what? Anyway. I can hazard guesses as to which emotions are caused by which events though. I’ve always felt she was brave every time she tried to express an emotion. I know what her ocean looks like. I didn’t realize that it had an almost physical presence in reality outside of her mind though. No wonder she’s hesitant to let herself expose her feelings and say the words. She’s smiling at me though as she snuggles against my arm while waving vaguely in the direction we sense the presence. I guess nothing need be said.

I tug on this strange invisible thread, the one I can only sense when I’ve got magically enhanced vision, odd as that is. It goes taut, guiding me towards exactly the direction Dawn is in. In fact, I could swear I just saw Dawn squirm behind a bush. Did the thread do that? Actually, huh, there are a few more threads, now that I’m aware of how to sense them. Mostly north’ish, some east’ish. I guess some could be north into town, and some even further past town. There isn’t one to Teuila, so it’s not like it’s my inner circle, or love or lovers or, or anything like that. I wonder what they signify. People who I’m fated to meet even if destiny isn’t exactly written out in a specific order? Hm, that seems a little trite as a guess.

Hey! Hm. I swear I just saw that thing again, poking out of my chest, out of the corner of my eye. Is there a ghost riding around in me? Ugh, gives me the shivers. If there was, what could I even do about it? It obviously survived dragon’s breath, since I first remember seeing it before Kozzurth. So it’s not like there’s any sort of attacks that I could muster up that would harm it.

Teuila rushes towards the disturbed bush yelling, “Hey Dawny! I, oh! Oh no. I’m sorry.”

I raise an eyebrow at Teuila. Oh crap. The quarterstaff that’s the handle of her spear. It’s like my danger wraps. It gives her that silent sonar or ranged tactile sense or whatever within a few dozen feet.

Teuila’s mumbling, “I didn’t mean to. I, I forgot. It’s been so long since I used this one. This spear. Its magic. It’s the same as Reggie’s. I’m sorry. Please don’t be mad. We’re going to be leaving the brook, and, and we got the mairess to um, she booked us three for tonight to leave on fish. I wanted to try to help you, to see if our quest might help you curse.”

I frown as I try not to laugh at Teuila’s misspeaking nervousness. My poor Wings. Oh my Teuila. I love you. I wish I could alleviate your current anxiety.

Dawn looks annoyed as they put two and two together, and doubly annoyed when they wrap an arm around their torso, remembering its futility. Still, they haven’t just scowled and walked off, or told us to piss off. Dawn then follows along Teuila’s statement, and seems to be reciting it in their head, trying to parse the last bits. They suddenly laugh. It’s a pleasant, charming, disarming laugh.

Dawn says, “Well, I sort of expected us to be leaving together at some point. Not quite this soon, and I thought we’d be traveling on foot. So, we’ll be traveling on fish instead eh? Hah. No no, I’m kidding, it’s okay Teuila, um Boss. Don’t look so sad. I’m, um. Not the most comfortable around other people. But I have literally nothing going for me here. I’m kind of dying, or well, not dying, of boredom. Seeing as you’ve slain a dragon and more already, and you were rambling about other worlds and stuff while we were out there, well. I figure you’re my best shot. Hope that doesn’t sound like I’m using you. I guess I sort of am though. Maybe we can both be sorry together, and just cancel it out and call it even?”

Teuila offers her right hand for a shake, saying, “Deal.”

At first I’m afraid that we’ll have to set up some sort of rendezvous and sneak Dawn into town or something to accommodate their anxiety. I mean, not afraid, but, I don’t know what I mean. That sort of feeling where you’re sure someone might need a certain kind of help that might be difficult, but you’re totally willing to give. Then they end up not needing the help. That feeling. Bluh Reggie, when you can’t access your digital dictionary mental logs, your brain is a mess. I know! I’ve said that already! Hah. Like, repeatedly. Same with if there’s no one else riding around in it. Ah, right, arguing with yourself. The clear picture of the perfectly sane individual. … Sh’up.

After my brain is done fritzing out, I realize Teuila is dragging Dawn along with me as she streaks back into town to go shopping for supplies. I find myself smiling and laughing all the more since Dawn seems unable to fight back at least a bit of a smile at Teuila’s excitement. Oh no, Te’s totally going to ask Dawn what foods taste good, and what food they want. Can I stop her in time?

Teuila shouts back, “I’m buying supplies ay ess ay pee ya know! What sort of food do you want Dawny? What’s available that tastes good and lasts a while?”

Oof. The two of us, we’re both totally the epitome foot-in-mouth syndrome. Ugh. I really wish I knew a better metaphor for that. It’s like, faux pas blunderama blunderificness. I hope Dawn isn’t too upset by the accidental ignoring of their curse. Hopefully Teuila doesn’t suffer too much if they are annoyed to the extreme.

Dawn coughs as they follow along, “I uh, don’t want any. Thank you though. I’d suggest sweets, some last a surprisingly long time, and salted meats, and hardtack.”

Teuila’s eyes light up at the idea of sweets. We both know what they are, but I don’t think we’ve had any, in either of our lives. The closest things we’ve had were some fruits, but my family is mostly river otters, so we were closer to obligate carnivores, mostly eating meat even when fruit became available.

As we re-enter town, there are various murmurs from the assorted townsfolk that are out and about. Most of them are along the lines of “Is that the dawn-spook?” I’d laugh if I weren’t worried it might hurt Dawn’s feelings. Dawn looks exceedingly self-conscious at the moment, their free arm is wrapped around the front of their torso. I’m tempted to tell them that their shirts do a good job of binding, so their mannerisms are more likely to give away the, um, what they’d like to hide.